Bangalore, India - November 4, 2009Saltmarch Intelligence today announced that data confidentiality and auditability topped the list of primary obstacles for the use of cloud computing technologies in their organizations, according to a recent survey of over 1100 Indian Business Technology professionals.

The survey conducted in the third quarter of this year measured perceptions of Business technology professionals including their important challenges in adopting Cloud, the drivers, how their organization's plan to use Cloud, the different stages of adoption, and the cloud platforms, applications, clients, infrastructure and storage used.

"Cloud Computing has not only been a buzzword but has also become an important opportunity for every type of business. Financial savings, agility and elasticity, all enabled through cloud technology, are crucial in a fast paced business world. At the same time security incidents in the Cloud have made clear that this new promising technology comes with complexity and security and privacy challenges. The 'net generation', that is used to open and quick information exchange is entering the workforce and is expecting consumer technology in the workplace. Cyber attacks are executed with precision and patience and security technology seems to fall behind the threat curve," said Indu Britto, Group Publisher & Senior Vice President, Saltmarch Media.

"While Data confidentiality and auditability (24.5%) topped the list of primary obstacles for the use of cloud computing technologies, performance unpredictability (20.1%) appeared to be another key factor dampening adoption levels". Data transfer bottlenecks (17.5%) and data lock-in (14.3%) were next on the list of factors as reported by respondents

Speaking at the 2009 edition of Saltmarch Media's annual Business Technology Summit, Nils Puhlmann, Co-founder of the Cloud Security Alliance, said "New and emerging technologies like cloud computing and social networks are not only on the radar of many businesses and IT managers, but also on the radar of the bad guys who are using emerging technologies to circumvent or evade defenses that were built and designed for traditional, static systems with clear boundaries. But not only does the technology itself change, the way we consume it and follow technology trends as if they were fashion items seems to add to the growing challenges of security professionals. Information is produced at a rapid rate and more and more openly shared through new and agile collaboration channels that are no longer under our control."

The survey report is not available for public consumption and will be released from the Saltmarch Intelligence web site for purchase end November 2009. Information in this press release is exclusive to participating media.